1. Field of the Invention
This patent application is related to a provisional application No. 61/657,897, “Validation and Authorization of Device and User by Global Positioning and Non-Prompted Exchange of Information”, submitted to the US PTO on Jun. 11, 2012, by the authors of this current patent application.
The invention relates generally to validation and authorization of both device and user to access protected content, and more particularly to security of financial transactions on handheld or mobile phones. It also relates to anti-robbery action by Police and Banks, and protection of citizens and clients.
2. Background
In financial transactions, it is important to safely validate and authorize both the device and the user himself/herself before having him/her accessing protected data and/or executing financial transactions.
The miniaturization progress in microelectronics led to progressive more computing power on desktops and more recently handheld, tablets and mobile smart phones capable of complex data processing. Tablets and, more pervasively, smart phones are now considered as a means to access and execute electronic financial transactions. In the use of tablets or cell phones as electronic wallets, both the device and the user might be exposed to criminal action. The device could have been stolen and be used by someone impersonating its owner. The user might be victim of an assault where the assailant is forcing him to access his accounts and perform financial operations under threat of violence.
In the interest of clarity in the descriptions, tablets and smart phones or any other mobile device used in financial, banking or payment transactions will be referred to indistinguishably as the mobile device throughout this document.
Therefore there is a need to protect against the mobile device being used by an impersonator to access protected data of the legitimate user of said mobile device.
And, there is also a need for anti-kidnapping and protective action for citizens and user of said mobile device against kidnapping or threat of violence. In particular protection against violence or threat of violence intended to force the user to give access to his protected financial assets using his/her mobile device.
The initial thoughts that developed into this invention came to Luiz M Franca-Neto when he was serving as a professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, in the first semester of 2010. Luiz was traveling frequently between California and São Paulo state in Brazil. He had met Mr. Milton Mitoo Yamaguchi, Director at Itautec in Brazil, a company specialized in computers and automatic teller machines for banks Mr. Yamaguchi mentioned Itautec's concerns about violence against bank automatic machines and Itautec's interest in solutions for improving safety of bank assets. During that period, in one of the returns to California, Luiz mentioned the needs of Itautec in Brazil to Marta. Both Luiz and Marta then addressed the concern for bank assets' and user's safety. Both Luiz and Marta conceived the original ideas and innovations claimed in this provisional patent in that first semester of 2010.